Former Cardiff City favourite Joe Ledley admits he is in football dreamland, declaring: “Beating Barcelona is the greatest moment of my career...

Former Cardiff City favourite Joe Ledley admits he is in football dreamland, declaring: “Beating Barcelona is the greatest moment of my career... even better than reaching the FA Cup final with the Bluebirds.”

The Wales midfielder says he is still struggling to believe Celtic’s historic Uefa Champions League triumph really happened .... despite watching the pulsating 90 minutes back on television.

Ledley and Wales team-mate Adam Matthews, another former Bluebird, were among the Celtic stars playing starring roles as the Scottish champions stunned the Catalan giants with an unlikely 2-1 victory in front of 60,000 fans at Parkhead.

Ledley, from Fairwater, admitted experiencing magical European nights like that one were the reason he quit his hometown team to join Celtic in the first place.

And he revealed he has begun talks with the Hoops about extending his current Celtic deal, which expires in 2014.

“It’s the greatest moment of my career without a shadow of a doubt. We have just beaten the best team in history,” beamed Ledley. “Reaching the FA Cup final with Cardiff was up there, but beating the best team in the world was extra special.

“I’ve got to say that while I know every player says this sort of thing, that was the best atmosphere I have known.

“It was the biggest game I have played in. I was up against the best players in the world, against the best team in the world... and we won it.

“I went home after the game, sat down and it still didn’t really sink in. I watched the game back on television but you still can’t believe that you have done it.

“I guess it will take a couple of days to fully take it in properly, but it was clearly a fantastic achievement. As players we can only grow in confidence and belief after a result like that against such a top, top team.

“Mentally it’s tough playing them. You are going into a game knowing that you aren’t going to see a lot of the ball.

“We probably shocked a lot of people. Barcelona were the team everyone was betting, so it was fantastic.”

Celtic had come within a whisker of shocking Barcelona in their own Nou Camp backyard in the previous European tie, only to agonisingly lose in the closing moments.

This time, Ledley and his team-mates prevailed and suddenly find themselves in pole position to join Barcelona in going through from the group into the knockout stages.

“Realistically we would probably have thought we would have got no points from the two games against Barcelona, but what we achieved was fantastic,” said Ledley.

“We had to believe after the first game against them in Spain, when we lost 2-1, and we took that form into the game at home. Playing these sort of matches in the Champions League, the best competition of the lot, was one of the reasons myself and Adam Matthews moved from Cardiff to Celtic.

“You line up in the tunnel next to Barcelona, you see the players up against you... and sometimes you need to pinch yourself. But after that, when the whistle goes, you are totally focused on what you need to do in terms of getting the three points.”

Matthews, in particular, earned huge plaudits north of the border for the manner in which he helped tame some of Barcelona’s dangermen.

The former Bluebirds ace had arguably the game of his club career, with Alexis Sanchez, Pedro, Lionel Messi and Dani Alves each pitched up against him at times.

Matthews is one of a crop of Celtic players on the radar of big clubs in England and abroad, with boss Neil Lennon has also having seen his own stock rise.

But Ledley said: “Hopefully we can keep this group together, including the manager.

“He is by far the best manager I’ve had, next to Gary Speed with Wales.

“There are talks going on. I have one more year after this season and hopefully I can agree a new deal.

“There will be interest in everyone but we need to keep our feet on the ground and keep going.”

Ledley himself had Premier League options with the likes of Stoke City when he left Cardiff, but shunned England’s top flight for Glasgow.

He copped a lot of flak at the time from some Cardiff fans, who claimed he wasn’t taking a step up from the Bluebirds.

But Ledley believes the Barcelona result proves his decision was vindicated.“People down south always said, ‘Why are you joining Celtic?’ and things like that,” continued Ledley.

“But I’ve just proved them wrong basically – again. People are always going to criticise Scottish football for some reason.

“But personally, I think it is a fantastic league. To play in the Champions League is a huge honour too.”

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